This invention relates to a hook and loop attachment or fastening structure.
Typically, such structures comprise both male and female components; the male component having a series of hooks, and the female component having a wale of corresponding loops, connectable to the hooks to enable fastening. The present invention is particularly concerned with the female component of the structure.
In our earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,116 there is described a warp knit, weft inserted fabric which can be employed as the female component of a securing means. The disclosure in that document provides for open lap loops, formed by the front bar of a knitting machine, which project upwardly from the fabric on every second stitch.
An object of the present invention is to provide a female member of a hook and loop attachment structure which enables a 1 to 1 correspondence between loops and stitches in the knit structure. Similarly, it is intended to show a female member wherein there is a loop formed at each stitch of the background fabric. A further object is to form the loops using only a single loop bar.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a female member of a hook and loop fastening or attachment structure comprising individual wales of chain stitches with loops, wherein the wales of chain stitches are knitted on a supporting background, characterized in that there is a corresponding number of loops to stitches.
Optionally, each stitch is associated with a respective loop. Alternatively, each loop may be attached to two respective stitches.
Optionally the background structure may be a regular warp knitted fabric. Alternatively, it may be a weft insertion warp knitted fabric.
A further alternative is that the support background may be of a non-woven material or a film material.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for producing a female component of an hook and lop fastening structure as described above wherein the loops are formed using a single guide bar.
The wales of chain stitches with loops may be made with a single yarn or with two yarns.